This is so strange. I switched about a week ago to get the GS4. VZW renigged on their promise of an early update, and then I found out that getting an upgrade would cause me to lose my unlimited that I've had for years. I was about 5 months short of my latest two year stint with them. Not only is the phone fantastic, but they haven't demanded an early disconnect fee (I would have told them what they could do with that demand had they sent one). But they sent me a long questionaire about why I left VZW and what they could do to get me back. LOL...I told them. They haven't bothered me since and I don't anticipate they will. If they tried to collect their money, they'd lose.

Billion dollar corporation. If they come after money owed to them per your CONTRACT, then no, you won't win lol

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Yes, agree that these phone service providers have no qualms about sending their early term bills/other owed account balances to collection agencies and they will put the info on your credit report. They will even do this years later, again, even if you have paid everything owed or claimed to be owed. No qualms whatsoever.

I'd fight them tooth and nail. I consider their refusal to continue unlimited service as, what is called, an anticipatory breach of contract. Trust me. I do this stuff for a living. You can't just have an agreement and then decide you don't like it and want to change it.

I'd fight them tooth and nail. I consider their refusal to continue unlimited service as, what is called, an anticipatory breach of contract. Trust me. I do this stuff for a living. You can't just have an agreement and then decide you don't like it and want to change it.

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You're a corporate lawyer specializing in service contracts? The contract giving unlimited data stays in force until you sign a new contract without unlimited data - which you willingly sign when accepting a deal on a new phone. If you buy phones on your own, you can keep that unlimited data contract. They're not forcing you to sign a new contract, and they're not canceling it - you are.

I've been an attorney for +35 years (although I concentrate on criminal defense).

The theory of an anticipatory breach in this context is, let us say, somewhat unique.

Put me down on the side which views the arrangement with Verizon as consisting of separate contracts each running typically 2 years. They are free to offer new and different terms upon expiration; the consumer is free to walk away.

But that's exactly the point, no? You're not free to walk away without paying what I would consider a penalty or a forfeiture. Should I be forced to pay the same amount of money to get less service than I'd been getting for years simply because I succumb to the bombardment of ads for the latest and greatest from, guess who? Should one stick with two cans and a string forever?....well, come to think about it, sometimes I wonder.

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Yes, agree that these phone service providers have no qualms about sending their early term bills/other owed account balances to collection agencies and they will put the info on your credit report. They will even do this years later, again, even if you have paid everything owed or claimed to be owed. No qualms whatsoever.

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It's likely not the original creditor that places these once delinquent but now paid in full contracts back on the credit report again. Often times debt collectors who might not even have legal right to do so will seek out people who've had bad debts and try to collect on them anyway hoping you don't know any better. It's highly illegal, but they do to anyway since the potential payoff would be very profitable.

That's true. Most, if not all businesses sell off their receivables to a variety of sheister collectors and hope to get 10% back. The collector also gets a piece. By the time it gets to me, it's too miniscule to exist.

Bottom line to me, it simply doesn't make even good business sense to lose that monthly they get from me month after month, year after year. For what?